Letters, April 6: The scent may please, but watch for its effect

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Lori Fallace: As a health teacher and breast cancer survivor with none of the risk factors for the disease, I got a little uppity when I read your article encouraging men and women alike to select a trendy fragrance for spring ["Take a whiff of these fragrance tips," Fashion, April 2].

Perfume bottle (Register photo)

A significant number of industrial chemicals, including some in fragrances, can act as hormone disruptors by interfering with the production, release, transport, metabolism and binding of hormones to their targets in the body.

Some hormone disruptors can prevent the action of naturally occurring hormones and interfere with the endocrine system. Depending on the dose and timing, exposure to hormone disruptors has been linked to a wide range of health problems, including an increased risk of cancer, especially breast and prostate cancers; reproductive toxicity, sperm damage, effects on the developing fetus; and predisposition to metabolic disease such as thyroid problems or obesity.

Scientists are still trying to understand the human health implications of lifelong, cumulative exposure to mixtures of hormonally active chemicals. The greatest concern is that these chemicals, through their ability to mimic or disrupt natural estrogen, testosterone and thyroid pathways, may impair basic body functions like tissue growth and repair that are normally regulated by natural hormone signaling.

Fragrances continue to be a serious health concern because there are ingredients in them that fragrance companies don't have to disclose. Companies have "trade secret" protection under law. As long as companies do not tell us what ingredients they are using in their products, how can we know whether the product is safe for us to use?

Let's support the 200-plus companies that have fully disclosed all ingredients – including fragrance – on their labels. I look forward to the day when I can select from several of these at a high-end fragrance counter. Learn more by visiting http://safecosmetics.org/

TUSTIN, Dale K. Babb: The future of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act is grim. There will be a decrease in the number of doctors as a result and a need for more doctors. Why would anyone spend a fortune on tuition and years in medical school only to be underpaid and shackled by bureaucracy?

Gone will be the quality, invention and innovation which have marked our medical system to this point. One can sugarcoat it and give panels nebulous names, but there will be "death panels" that will have power to decline service and procedures to certain people. We have heard the horror stories that have come out of Great Britain.

When Medicare was enacted in 1965, a study projected the cost 25 years into the future. Yet the actual cost was at least 10 times what was originally projected.

Obamacare is already nearly three times the original cost. The original price tag for this health care overhaul was kept under the $1 trillion mark. However, the short-term costs have soared to well over $2.6 trillion. And it hasn't even gone into full effect.

Abortion excuses

SANTA ANA, Harry Wilson: Letter-writer Judith A. Lewis justifies abortion as a means to protect children from societal ills ["Perspectives on abortion and moral choice," April 2]. Let's examine what passes today as compassion for the unborn. According to Lewis, the most important consideration for parents and society is the quality of life of the child. In other words, abortion is justified if some ambiguous standard called the "quality of life" is not met.

The letter-writer also makes the case for abortion by pointing to ugly situations where a child is born addicted to drugs. Another so-called compassionate reason for abortion is when a young woman has unhealthy relationships where she may not know who the father is or she is not ready to take on the awesome responsibility of raising a child.

What is clear is that abortion is overwhelmingly used to cover the sins of two irresponsible people who have a "do it if it feels good" mentality. Misplaced compassion for the offenders ultimately holds no one personally responsible for his or her behavior.

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TUSTIN, Mary Cangelosi: Judith A. Lewis suggests that if there is a possibility that a child will be raised with disadvantages it is better to be aborted. I would like her to find one person who was raised with the disadvantage of a too young mother, a single mother, abusive parents or any other disadvantage and would rather have been aborted than be alive and living their life today.

All of the problematic scenarios that Lewis provides in defense of abortion as "the better choice" could be solved by the baby's parents unselfishly placing their child with loving parents through adoption. She says that pro-choice folks place a high value on communities and families that are safe, loving and nurturing. And yet I have never heard a pro-choice person speak in favor of finding that kind of family by adoption.

A person's situation or story does not change the fact that the aborted baby was a living human being who deserved to be born and live. That is a fact and not a judgment of anyone.

Associated Press censors

LAGUNA WOODS, Andy Allaire: The "politically correct" sweethearts in this country have become so extreme that they are now almost comedic. Word meanings are changed or altered so fast that it is hard to keep up with the new language. The definition of "marriage" is under assault. The word "illegal" is being manipulated to appease people who want to confuse the English language.

The Associated Press is the latest group to compound word meanings. They are no longer going to report that an "illegal alien" or "illegal immigrant" is an illegal immigrant. They are going to twist the words around to "an immigrant who is here illegally."

The Associated Press has been a left-leaning organization a while now, so perhaps it just couldn't stand it any longer. I prefer to use the English language how it was intended. Marriage will always be "a union between a man and a woman." An "illegal immigrant" will always be an illegal alien.

Caltrans' obligations

MISSION VIEJO, Anthony S. Elia: Orange County taxpayers have a contract with Caltrans in which the agency and the Orange County Transportation Authority promised to provide free carpool lanes for vehicles with two occupants in exchange for taxes and bonds ["Caltrans looks at more tolls, three-person carpool rules," News, March 30].

Taxpayers in Orange County must vigorously defend this Caltrans obligation. Currently, congestion at exit points, along with constant increase and decrease of lanes on the freeway, is the cause of reduced speed in the carpool lanes and the freeway as a whole.

Raising occupancy requirements and charging any fee or tariff is a direct violation of the original contract between the O.C. taxpayers and Caltrans and OCTA, which are charged with serving the public.

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